sauce
Americannoun
-
any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
-
stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
-
something that adds piquance or zest.
-
Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
-
Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
-
Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
-
to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
-
to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
-
to give piquance or zest to.
-
to make agreeable or less harsh.
-
Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
-
any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
-
anything that adds piquancy
-
stewed fruit
-
dialect vegetables eaten with meat
-
informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
-
to prepare (food) with sauce
-
to add zest to
-
to make agreeable or less severe
-
informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
- oversauce verb (used with object)
- sauceless adjective
Etymology
Origin of sauce
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; salt 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A great sauce does the same for dinner.
From Salon
The so-called secret sauce in TikTok's rapid expansion has been its innovative recommendation algorithm.
From Barron's
The starchy pasta water, slowly whisked in, binds it all into a sauce that clings and stretches, tugging at each bite with just enough tension to remind you that this is pasta, not soup.
From Salon
So fill your pantry with fish sauce caramel corn, vegan chorizo Chex mix, cult-favorite bar nuts and a top-notch burnt olive ranch dip—and your shot glasses with perfect pairings for each.
“The secret sauce is, ‘Do you have, for your company, data?’
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
